Biome Productivity Exercise The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER)

The Assignment 1.You have been assigned to a random group of 4 students 2.Read the first section of Knapp et al. (2004). 3.Your group has been assigned 2 LTER sites from the LTER Primary Productivity database on the MS Excel file named: LTER anpp-precip.xls 4.Additional information can be obtained from the following web sites: a. b. 5.Search for patterns that describe the effect of precipitation and temperature on primary productivity a.Approximately 25 years worth of data are available for exploration and for plotting graphs b.Construct a scatter plot using Excel and copy and paste it into into PowerPoint

What to turn in. 1.A statement of the ecological rule rule you think supports your data (e.g., as temp. increases, NPP decreases) 2.Two graphs based on the data (Excel imported into a PowerPoint) 3.Test the rule by comparing the figures from your LTER sites to those constructed using data from two different LTER sites 4.Use what you know about biomes and the factors affecting primary productivity from the lecture, the web sites listed previously and the text to answer the question below. a.“Is the rule supported?”. i.If it is not supported, propose one or two reasons that could explain why not ii.If it is supported, propose one or two other factors that were not measured or included in the database that might alter the patterns you observed in the first two LTER sites.

Deadline Create a PowerPoint presentation with no more than three slides of data on your assigned LTER Sites (be sure to include units on your graphics). Go to D2L and put them in the drop box labeled “Ecology Homework Assignment” by Thursday, Feb. 9 th at 7:00 a.m. In class we will do the following: –I will select a few examples, which will be presented in class and used for discussion. –We will examine how “ecological rules” are used to describe the behavior of ecosystems given certain boundaries. –This is worth 10 points.

LTER Locations CC TL HB

Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) Sites Number Site AbrevVeg Code Vegetation Type 1 Bonanza, AK BNZa Balsam poplar forest 2 Cedar Creek, MN CCb Oak savanna grassland 3 Harvard Forest, MA HFc Mixed deciduous forest 4 Hubbard Brook, NH HBd Mixed deciduous forest 5 Jornada, NM JORe Black gramma grassland 6 Kellogg, MI KGf Successional field (annually tilled) 7 Konza Prairie, KS KNZg Tall grass prairie (annually burned) 8 Niwot Ridge, CO NWTh Moist alpine meadow 9 Sevilleta, NM SEVi Mixed desert grassland 10 Short grass Steppe, CO SGj Short grass steppe (swale) 11 Arctic Tundra, AK TLk Arctic tundra

LTER Assignment Combinations Find your group number. It will indicate which two sites you are to compare in generating your ecological rule. Test your rule by examining the data from two different sites, and explain whether or not these sites fit the rule. BNZCCHFHBJORKGKNZNWTSEVSGTL BNZ12345 CC HF HB JOR KG KNZ3031 KNZ3233 NWT34 SEV35 TL